The Sims 3 Illegally Downloaded 180,000 Times

It's never pretty when a game gets leaked early and winds up fodder for P2P file sharing sites. Such was the fate of Maxis' long-awaited The Sims 3. According to a new report on Bloomberg today, the game has already been illegally downloaded a staggering 180,000 times; and all this before the official launch of Tuesday June 2nd.

We first reported that an unfinished version of The Sims 3 had found its way onto Torrent sites early last week, but currently, these figures outpace the rate that EA's Spore was attacked by piracy when it released last year:

"That's an impressive number," said Joe Fleischer, the head of marketing and co-founder of Beverly Hills, California- based BigChampagne. "If people want the content and can download it on the Internet, which is pretty much all content types, they are going to do it."

"Sims" games have sold more than 100 million copies since 2000, more than any other titles for the personal computer. The availability of "Sims 3" on the Internet highlights the difficulty video-game companies have keeping products under wraps until the official release, just like their counterparts in film and music.

The question of whether or not EA's decision to abstain from any kind of DRM with The Sims 3 has affected this surge in piracy remains up in the air.

Bryn says: Be honest. Have you downloaded The Sims 3? If so, would you consider buying the game legitimately now that you've had the chance to tinker around with it? Do you think you're hurting the videogame industry or do you simply not care? I wanna know!

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